Media editing applications allow users to create composite multimedia presentations (e.g., movies) based on several multimedia clips, such as audio and video clips. The graphical user interface (GUI) of such a media editing application will often include a composite display area that includes several tracks that span a timeline. On the tracks, the composite display area displays rectangles or other shapes that represent the clips used to create the multimedia presentation.
Often, the composite display area cannot display all the tracks. Only a particular portion of the GUI of the application is reserved for the composite display area, and this may not be enough room to display all of the tracks. Thus, a user must scroll to view some of the tracks, but this will move other tracks out of the display. Once a particular number of tracks is exceeded, the application can no longer concurrently display all of the tracks in the display area. This can make it difficult for a user to accurately line up clips that are in tracks far apart. Thus, there is a need for a media editing application that allows a user to condense the media clips in a composite display area in one way or another.